18 September 2012

We spent the weekend in Portland visiting Nate's brother and (soon-to-be!) sister-in-law. Z has become quite proficient at packing for long car rides this summer. Go figure.

We had dinner on Friday night at a place called Hopworks, which I kept reading as Hogwarts so, that was cool. I ate myself a giant steak sandwich and took note of how Portlandian my family looked with their top knots and scruffy beards.

Z was basically enamored with her aunt and uncle. She didn't allow them to stop entertaining her for more than two minutes at a time. She repaid them for their hard work by watering their plants and beating Uncle Kevan with a plastic sword.

We stopped at the Soda Pop Shop to stock up on rad, unconventional sodas. Is this our way of compensating for not drinking all of the artisan beer flowing through Portland? Umm..yeah, sure. The shop had a soda counter where Z ordered a bubble gum soda (of course). I tasted it and it was...disgusting. She loved it. Also, while we were there Nate said that "he was really into colas right now" which I totally laughed hard at.

Our final stop of the weekend was a trip to Ikea! Because we have no chairs! Yay! We entered Ikea at 7:00 PM with our exhausted time bomb of a child and we tore that place up. Seriously, if there is one thing we are good at it is hitting that big box Scandinavian store with speed and efficiency. Not possible you say? I'll tell you right now it is all about the pre-planning. It is also about the having previously bought things without thinking them through and then having buyers remorse but living four hours away from an Ikea. It's about saying "no" to Ikea, you guys. Also, not stopping in the kitchen supplies section. It's about that too.

On Sunday we went to church, took naps, ate the fancy cheese and cured meat ('cept not me) that we brought home from Portland (remind me to tell you about Nate and the hipster at the salami counter sometime, will you?), and taught Z how to decipher Ikea instructions. POANG!

In case it isn't obvious, we spent our weekend wandering/driving around Portland and eating all of the things (I didn't even mention the street crepes or the protein heavy brunch). It's basically how we Walkers like to roll. It was exactly the kind of weekend our family has been needing because the fact is, we spent way too much time away from each other this summer. Here's to no more of that.